How Instaproofs started their other graphic design journey

Company name

Instaproofs, Inc.

Overview

Our company just celebrated its fifth year in providing online storefronts to professional photographers. We are known throughout the US as one of the top photographer storefront providers in the country. Our fair prices, professionally designed storefronts, intuitive interface, and stellar customer service are some of the things that set us apart from everyone else in the industry.

Tell us a bit about who you are and the people you reach

The target audience for this icon/logo is design minded Apple users, that also happen to be professional photographers. Since the application icon is one of the only chances that we have to catch a potential customer's eye, the icon needs to look as good as it possibly can. Apple users and professional photographers tend to be a bit more particular about design than standard users, so this icon/logo needs to be developed with them in mind.

The market for our application is very new (new in 2010), and there are only three competing applications trying for the top spot at this time. We need this icon to stand out as something exceptional. We need it to convey the message that the application that it belongs to is a high quality application.

Requirements

We are developing a legal contracts application for the iPad, and we need a custom logo & icon set designed for it. We've attached a mockup of what we'd like to have done (a wax seal on an envelope), but we'd like it done as photorealistic as possible.

An example of the level of photorealism that we'd like to see in the finished product can be seen here: http://bit.ly/bBBlOE

First of all, we trust that you guys will be able to come up with some excellent versions of the seal on your own. But, if you are looking for some additional direction from us, read on:

http://bit.ly/9x0pt0
This is a stock illustration from stock exchange. We don't like the blobbiness of it. The shape is not interesting and it doesn't look like the shape of a real wax seal.

http://bit.ly/9k22ZD
This one looks really bad, weird, jittery edges, and they just did a pillow emboss filter on it. Again, the shape doesn't look right.

http://bit.ly/cStvO9
These are closer to reality, shape wise. Obviously they are fairly simplistic versions.

http://bit.ly/adjnSb
We like the organic flow of the wax and the thickness to it. It's not contrived to look like a blobby mess, it's just how the wax would actually go.

The "C" on the seal stands for Contracts. We like the "C" on this poster: http://bit.ly/aOOmL5 But, other ideas are also welcome.